Raiders split doubleheader

SAN ANTONIO – Close games have been the norm for MTSU baseball and winning one-run games has been habit forming.

The Blue Raiders settled for a split in two one-run games at UT-San Antonio Saturday, winning game one of the doubleheader, 6-5, before dropping the nightcap, 4-3 to lose the series 2-1.

MTSU is 12-3 in one-game games this season.

MTSU (29-22, 19-8) fell one-half game behind Rice in the Conference USA standings by virtue of the doubleheader split. If Rice drops its series finale at Florida Atlantic, the two teams will go into the final weekend tied for the C-USA lead. Should Rice complete the sweep of Florida Atlantic Sunday it would take a one-game lead into the final weekend.

"It is tough to sweep doubleheaders, especially two nine-inning games," MTSU coach Jim McGuire said. "Our guys really battled today and had a chance to win both games. You saw two evenly-matched teams battle, and the result was two one-run games."

Sophomore right fielder Brad Jarreau had a stellar series and capped it off with strong doubleheader. Jarreau was 6-for-11 in the twinbill and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. He was 4-for-6 in the first game and 2-for-5 in the nightcap.

MTSU wasted no time jumping out to an early lead in the first game of the doubleheader. The Blue Raiders struck for three in the top of the inning, highlighted by Jebavy's sixth home run of the season.

Jarreau started the game with a sharp single to center to extend his hitting streak to nine games. With one out, Jebavy stepped to the plate and unloaded on a 1-1 offering, driving it 390 feet over the wall in left center to stake the Blue Raiders to a 2-0 lead. It was Jebavy's second home run in as many at-bats going back to Friday night.

Kaleb King later drew a bases-loaded walk to score Jared Allen, who had singled, to stake the Blue Raiders to a 3-0 lead. UTSA came right back with a two-spot in the bottom of the inning to pull to within 3-2.

UTSA eventually tied it in the bottom of the sixth, but MTSU scored single runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth to earn the win. Blake Stansberry (5-1) earned the victory on the mound, and Kooper Kessler notched his sixth save.

MTSU led 2-0 in the nightcap but UTSA (29-21, 14-12) scored one in the sixth and three in the seventh to go on top 4-2. The Blue Raiders scored one in the eighth but couldn't complete the shutout.